The Means Justify the Means | Occupy Occupies Occupy

Back in November, members of Occupy Seattle opposed to the “power dynamics created by a speaker on stage” occupies and disrupted an Occupy Seattle Town Hall. The Town Hall was designed to bring some direction and clarity to the movement. Instead, it was infected (or effected) by its own tactics.

Recently, at a large conference, a flash mob appeared and performed in the registration hall. When asked after who it was for and what its message was, most present didn’t know. The video produced for YouTube was from so far away, and the sound so bad, the message was mostly lost.

Some see Occupy as an innovative company, others see it as a loose group of individuals with separate and at times competing purposes. When one of the underlying aspects of a community is to allow everyone to participate, it can be much easier at times to share tactics than purpose.

But this is a dangerous course to take.

Yes, everyone is different and may well have a different message, opinion, or take on the subject. But this increases the need for clarity of objective and purpose at an event or experience marketing program. Tactic should vary, objective shouldn’t.

The means should justify the ends.

Note: As always, the desire of Janus Dialogs is not to adjudicate the appropriateness of any trend, but to bring it to the forefront for consideration by the caretakers for the shared moments in time we call experience marketing.